INSPIRON 3891 RUNNING SLOW - RUBBISH!

Please provide some details about the configuration of these systems, including but not limited to processor, memory, storage, network connection. For comparison, some details on how "the original" is (or was) configured. and more detail on exactly what you're trying to do and how you're determining/measuring the slow performance.

It may help to examine the Performance tab of Task Manager during the perceived slowness to try and gauge where the bottleneck is. See whether any of the CPU/memory/disk graphs in the left column is pegged at or close to 100%.

If not, it's very possible the problem is related to your network connection, since the workload you describe seems heavily dependent on it (cloud apps, website loading). I'm not an expert in network troubleshooting (and to be fair, I don't believe Dell support is either) but we users can try to provide pointers if that's where the problem lies.

@ADOLTD  - In addition to what @NJDave asked about system specs, how did you "reload" Win 11? Did you use Dell's tools and OS image that's stored on the PC or did you do a clean install using Microsoft's Media Creation Tool? You also didn't tell us what the problem was after you reloaded Win 11. That info may help us help you.

Assuming you reloaded the Dell OS image, have you tried setting the Startup type for all "Dell" services listed at Start>Run>services.msc to Disabled and rebooting?  (Eg, Dell SupportAssist, Dell Update, Dell Digital Delivery, Fusion Service)

You may also want to disable Smartbyte on the Startup tab in Task Manager, and any "Dell" items (see above) that appear on that tab after you disable Dell services in services.msc and reboot.

BTW: Are all the drivers and BIOS up-to-date?

Hi - sorry for the late reply - I have been away

The system is as bought: Intel Pentium Gold G-6405 processor. 4GM RAM, Intel UHD Graphics 610, 1TB HDD.

I have been looking at the Task manager and indeed the memory is generally running at around 80%+ with Google chrome and outlook open.  I guess that is high and will slow things down. Disk has been up to 100% but currently at 1-2% and CPU at 4%

I've found it hard to understand why the memory is running so high if that is the prime cause - it drops when I shut down Chrome and I've already disabled Smartbyte as suggested by @RoHe 

We've been measuring the slow performance simply with a stop watch! Also in comparison to the existing 'original' PC (which is a Packard Bell S3210 with Athlon II x3 425 processor and 3GB RAM running windows 7) and currently is quicker in processing the apps!

I simply cannot understand how a new PC out of the box is so frustrating - and we have 3 all the same!

Hi - sorry for the late response - I've been away.

I didn't manage to re-install Windows 11 as the instructions required that I delete various partitions but when that option appeared it would not let me do it  - I therefore abandoned  the installation and tried to get back  in touch with my Dell contact which is when I received the reply that they were glad it was all successful!

The drivers and BIOS are all up to date and I have managed to disable the Smartbyte and the other Dell services as suggested and seem to be still struggling!

Interestingly at startup before starting any app task manager is already showing 76% memory  activity

OK... you may not like my answer, I'm afraid, but here goes.

The main issue is memory, and the main difference between the old system's workload and the new is Windows 10. I don't have a guess for how much more 10 uses than 7 -- this page estimates 10 uses 1.5-2.5 GB -- but I would definitely feel constrained running ANY real workload on Windows 10 with less than 8 GB RAM. (A lot of folks here on the forum would bump that to 16GB, but I'm OK with 8, depending on workload.) Whether Dell should be selling any systems configured with only 4 GB RAM is a valid question/criticism. An additional memory user is your Intel HD integrated graphics, which uses system memory for graphics processing. That can allocate up to half of system memory, but you can see how much it's using at any time (typically MUCH less) in the GPU graph in Task Manager. (Edited to add: Oops, you did say Windows 11. The above goes even more emphatically for Windows 11.)

A secondary issue is your hard drive, because that's where the system's page file resides. If you check Task Manager, you'll see that the HDD is probably very busy as well. Whenever tasks on the system need memory, the memory state of less-recently-used tasks gets backed up to the page file. When those tasks need to execute again, their state is copied back into memory while other tasks get backed up. A memory-starved system spends all its time waiting for I/O to and from storage. Since your storage is a spinning hard drive, that means LOTS of waiting while the disk's arm is seeking back and forth, back and forth. Your new system's CPU is much faster than the old one's, but it's getting no chance to show it.

My wife made me promise to advise you to return those systems to Dell in protest. However if those were my systems, I'd add two things:

• 4GB (or even 8, again depending on workload) RAM, so that you have enough memory to operate. I'm guessing you have one memory slot open, though you can easily check in Task Manager. Under the Memory graph, alongside the "In use" and "available" stats, is "Slots used".
• A smallish, say 128GB or 256GB, M.2 SSD as the new boot drive (where the page file would reside as well). You'd clone or reload Windows onto the SSD, and keep your user files on your existing HDD (here's how). This is how my desktop is configured, BTW. This will make boot-up and starting new programs something like an order of magnitude faster, even when you have enough memory.

The above changes will make your systems FLY compared to what you are running with now. You could try on just one of the three, so you can see the difference. Forum users report some issues with 3rd-party memory compatibility; they usually counsel buying from Crucial, since they guarantee their memory will run in Dell systems. I hope this helps!

4 GB of RAM is really too low for Win 10 or Win 11. And onboard Intel UHD Graphics is sharing a lot of that RAM, which slows things down even further. Add-in video cards typically have their own RAM and use less system RAM. So you may need to add more RAM and perhaps install an add-in video card too...

What other unnecessary stuff is running in the background? Look at Startup tab in Task Manager. Disable non-essential things like Adobe updater, printer control apps, etc that don't have to load at every boot.  Don't disable your antiviral app (eg, Windows Security), audio control app, mouse app,

If you're using a lot of add-ins with Chrome, disable them and see if things improve. And read Google Chrome uses so much RAM and how to fix and How to Reduce Outlook Memory Usage.

EDIT: Sorry, @NJDave's post wasn't visible until after I posted mine. We seem to be on the same page about adding more RAM, etc... 

And the Intel Pentium Gold G6405 CPU isn't exactly efficient with only 2 cores and 4 threads compared to any of the Core CPUs that Dell offered with this PC model, all of which have double or higher core and thread counts.

To add to what I posted previously: I suspect you might view the SSD as a luxury. Either change, adding RAM or adding a small SSD, would markedly improve observed performance. The need for RAM is rather obvious, so the system can get some real work done and not spend all its time paging. Adding just the SSD, though not the right way to address your problem, would improve performance too -- you'd still be paging all the time, but MUCH faster. I'm saying that you really do need the RAM, but for not a lot of money, also adding the small SSD as a boot device would greatly boost performance, perceived performance at least. It's a huge bang for the buck (or pound).

@ADOLTD  - Some users ran into trouble adding RAM to this PC model, so see if anyone has posted specific RAM modules that will work in the Inspiron 3891. 

It is crazy that we chose a budget PC to simply run Excel. Word, emails and Internet and end up with a product not fit for purpose! How more basic is that - where are you Dell?!

Hi @RoHe and @NJDave  - firstly we can't thank  you enough for your time with this and your feedback is spot on in our view! Essentially what is being said is that Dell shouldn't be selling these with 4GB RAM with windows 10 (which is what it came originally). Therefore the units are 'not fit for purpose' which allows us to send them back ( @NJDave three cheers to your wife!! )

Let's see what happens - problem seems to talk to someone at Dell who makes sense!

Watch this space!

Thanks again

Did you buy these PCs directly from Dell or through some 3rd party website or store?

Put the Service Tags in on the Support page. (Don't post here.) When it recognizes that PC, look on right under Quick Links and click View Product Specs. Scroll down the list of specs and see how much RAM Dell installed at factory...

BTW: Have you tried a different browser? And talked to your ISP about internet speeds?

We bought them direct from Dell. Our internet speed is fine and using Bing didn't help.

I got through to someone at Dell warranty and of course got the anticipated story of passed the 90- day return and extra ram will cost... until I pointed out that these were 'unfit for purpose' and threat of social media they scurried off to get a decision. Not heard back at the time the promised to call. We'll see what happens today.

Interestingly their website no longer offers the same spec but now the minimum spec is 8Mb RAM, 4 core processor and SSD!!

I have to say that when I (actually, my wife) suggested returning the systems, I (we) meant to do so if you were within the return period. (She thanks you for the good wishes, by the way.)

I think Dell is within their rights to sell you a budget system for a budget price. For their part, Microsoft says 4GB is the minimum for running Windows 11, so it passes on that score. To be fair, you bear some responsibility too, to do a bit of research on what you're buying, or at the very least, to evaluate your systems within the return period.

I don't imagine you OVERpaid for these systems. You may be able to get Dell to take them back, but in the end you will end up paying more money (which you should have spent up front anyhow) and expending a ton of emotional energy in trying to get them to admit they were wrong. I think these systems are up to executing your workload with just the addition of a couple of components, easily installed and which you can get at street prices. I always chalk up an experience like this to "the high cost of education." Take the lesson and move on, is my advice.

It's pretty much all been said, but I'll just add my voice.  I bought a 3891 for my son in December of last year.  None of them were pre-configured with only 4 GB of ram as I was ordering it from the Dell website.  I got the cheapest box available at the time, and it had 8 GB and a 256 GB SSD.  With the i3 processor and a DVD burner drive (which they no longer offer even though the fake slot at the top is still there), it was $400 (and then tax after that).

While it was being shipped, for another 70 bucks total, I ordered matching ram of another 8 GB, and a 1 TB hard drive from Amazon.  I got those before the PC shipped - the PC spent about a week on the road before it got to me.  I remember watching the shipping status - and it stayed several days at one mail facility before someone finally noticed it again and shipped it on.  I was about to call that facility and ask why it's just sitting there.

I installed both the ram and HDD when the box finally made it to my house.

No problems upon boot up.  I had to wait for the final setup before I could go to the Disk Management applet to initialize the new hard drive.  Then Windows could see it and I could set the system to save all user files to the secondary drive.

I admit that my son doesn't really drive the Dell very hard.  He uses it some for his own music collection (mostly ripping my old CDs that he is into), and working with basic video editing.  Lots of browsing because his school uses Google Classroom for everything homework related (using Edge or Firefox - not Chrome), and he uses MS Word a lot too. He even mixes and edits some music with Adobe Audition.

No slowdowns for any of that.  The only game he's into is Minecraft, which runs fine on that PC.

The only issue he's had is that sometimes the DVD drive freezes up the file manager - especially when changing out CDs and it won't read the next disc that is inserted.  At first he had to reboot the machine to get it back.  But I showed him how to sign-out and sign back in which has the same effect making the DVD drive work again.